January 02, 2011

the last week of 2010

The last week of the year is always a rush- with Monkey Boy's birthday falling a few days after Christmas, and readying ourselves for the New Year's celebration, I often feel like I"m running behind as soon as I get out of bed in the morning.

We usually don't have a big party for MB's birthday till later in January, mostly because school is out of session for two weeks before the holidays, and really....not many people want to attend ANOTHER party after Christmas and before NYE. When I asked Monkey Boy where he wanted to go for a birthday lunch, he said Sonic! He really wanted to have the guys rollerskate the fries and food to our car, and he was looking forward to a shake. Unfortuately, it was raining when we woke up that morning so we went to our favorite sushi spot instead.

I love this photo of the small men- they were running around being silly as we waited outside the restaurant and they paused just long enough for me to shoot this.

Finally six years old!!!!

MB shows off one of his favorite sushi rolls- the California roll

Little Man loves tuna handrolls.

When we got home after lunch, MB finally got to open his birthday gift. He was super excited to finally get the Lego Firestation- can you tell????

The next big day was New Year's Eve....our wonderful friends Kirk and Penny invited us over for a special NYE dinner, all cooked by Martin (below in the chef's coat). Check out the spread!

OMGosh it was all so delicious...we started out with a ton of appetizers including beef tartar, which I've always wanted to try but been too cowardly to actually order in a restaurant. But when Martin said he had ground the meat himself, I figured "what the heck"....and it was really really good! In fact I ended up eating three pieces and only stopped because I knew we were in for a lot of amazing food: Alaskan king crab legs with garlic butter, luscious lambchops, beautifully cooked filet, and all the accompanying sauces and side dishes. Everything was so scrumptious- good thing we paced ourselves by starting apps at 7pm and not sitting for the main course till 10pm!

Martin delegated some of the work to us onlookers, but he did the majority of the prep and cooking. It's eye-opening to watch someone who has had real culinary training; I love watching Top Chef and cooking shows, but to see the prep work in person was a whole other matter.

And what were the kiddos doing while we adults ate and drank (and drank)? They were all playing Wii and Nintendo DS upstairs. Amazingly, every single one of them made it till midnight, though there were a lot of big, glazed eyes. And about 10 minutes later, Monkey Boy crawled into the Dearest's lap and fell asleep instantly. Little Man made it till we got into the car for the ride home, but within a few minutes of driving I looked back and he was passed out.

All in all, a busy and fun week...Now to see what 2011 has in store for us!